New Treasury Report: Corporate Concentration, Anti-competitive Practices Have Stifled Wages for Workers

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June Zaccone

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Mar 8, 2022, 5:03:33 PM3/8/22

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Employer Practices Limit Workers’ Choices and Wages, U.S. Study Argues

A Biden administration report says collusion and other constraints on competition hold down pay and prospects in the labor market.

The report, released Monday by the Treasury Department, contends that employers often face little competition for their workers, allowing them to pay substantially less than they would otherwise.

“There is a recognition that the idea of a competitive labor market is a fiction,” said Ben Harris, assistant Treasury secretary in the office of economic policy, which prepared the report. “This is a sea change in economics.”....

The Treasury report lays out the many ways in which employers do this. There are noncompete agreements that bar workers from moving to a competitor, and nondisclosure agreements that keep them from sharing information about wages and working conditions — critical information for workers to understand their options. Some companies make no-poaching deals.....